Namibia stakes its future on the green hydrogen market

In 2021, the Namibian government went to Europe with plans to export three million tonnes per annum of green or renewable energy-produced hydrogen from an area in the south-west of the country as part of a post-Covid economic recovery programme.

...Empowering African countries like Namibia to participate in the entire value chain of the green hydrogen economy could be transformative for the continent, says Amos Wemanya, a senior adviser at Power Shift Africa, a climate and energy think tank based in Nairobi – but the priority first needs to be on meeting each country’s basic energy and development needs.

While Hyphen’s project may have the potential to improve local access to energy, this needs to be cemented into its development plans.

“We need to set standards to hold the various participants in the green hydrogen economy accountable and that apply not only to the Namibian government but also investors, and investing countries, like Germany and the EU,” he says.

Power Shift Africa put forward suggestions for these standards in a green hydrogen position paper published in January 2022 with civil society organisation Germanwatch.